Not to make Joe uneasy by talking too much, even if I had been able to talk much, I deferred asking him about Miss Havisham until next day. He shook his head when I then asked him if she had recovered.

     "Is she dead, Joe?"

     "Why you see, old chap," said Joe, in a tone of remonstrance, and by way of getting at it by degrees, "I wouldn't go so far as to say that, for that's a deal to say; but she ain't--"

     "Living, Joe?"

     "That's nigher where it is," said Joe; "she ain't living."

     "Did she linger long, Joe?"

     "Arter you was took ill, pretty much about what you might call (if you was put to it) a week," said Joe; still determined, on my account, to come at everything by degrees.

     "Dear Joe, have you heard what becomes of her property?"